Social Programs
Medicaid versus the Kindness of Strangers
Published August 28, 2009 @ 08:48AM PT
In the wake of Ted Kennedy's death, healthcare reform is getting another look. That look may or may not mean a renewed sense of progress come September, when Congress resumes what is sure to be a contentious debate. But it's clear that the kind of government role Kennedy believed in, on healthcare and other issues, will not be forgotten soon.
Acting on that vision, and getting meaningful reform for the consitencies Kennedy advocated for most, will not be easy, and in some ways got much harder with Kennedy's deterioration and death.
Meet the Uninsured
Published August 24, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
At our Universal Health Care blog, Tim has an entire category concerning the uninsured and underinsured. (You need to be reading his blog.) But for those of you with little time to familiarize yourself with the 47M or so Americans estimated to lack adequate health insurance, the New York Times this weekend offers a handy little summary of just who these folks are:
- The working poor are the majority, at about 30M people.
- The "better-off", as judged by total household income of up to $75k per year. Includes roommates, non-family households, etc. D'oh!
- Young adults - this is the mythical group who rejects health care right before they go bungie jumping and compete in a triathalon. Irrepressible youngsters! Turns out most are poor. See the first bullet.
- Medicaid-eligible poor, who are not enrolled for one reason or another. This is the most popular crew featured in the "all their emergency room care is bankrupting us!" storyline.
- The underinsured - crazy deductibles and restrictions make health insurance theoretical.
- Non-citizens.
The NYT points out which potential reform bills would help who, but ends on this sharper point: "Any nation as rich as ours ought to guarantee health coverage for all of its residents."
1 in 5 Americans are Poor
Published August 22, 2009 @ 11:34AM PT
As summer melts away and non-profit organizations gear up for a difficult fall, anti-poverty activists need an accurate picture of just how tough it is out there. Following up on Greg's great post from Thursday that captured the growth of hunger nationwide, we offer now a quick summary of the latest recessionary figures:
- 37.3M people were living below the official poverty line in 2007; 2008 should see another 1.5M added, for a statistically significant growth to 12.7% of the population. Experts anticipate an even worse result by the end of '09, and estimate we could hover around 15% of the population officially considered living in poverty. Even acknowledging how outdated this poverty measure is, we have not counted 1 in 7 people living in poverty since the recession of the early 1990s. And if historical census figures that include the "near poor" are anything to go by, we can expect 1 in 5 people, or 20% of Americans, to be living in or near poverty by the end of this year.
Ask Congress About Medicaid
Published August 19, 2009 @ 01:04PM PT
After Congress failed to meet self-imposed deadlines to put together a comprehensive plan before the August recess, it's clear healthcare reform has run into some major issues. Some of them - like the wailings of a wacky former Governor about "death panels" (sounds like bad siding) are easily dismissed. Others are issues that are not likely to go away, and may well affect what happens to healthcare reform when Congress resumes in September.
The press and many progressive advocates have latched onto the "public plan", shorthand for some sort of government run insurance plan which would serve as a backstop for households when no other insurance option was available. The "public plan" has come to symbolize, for the right, the threat of a "government takeover" of healthcare... and for the left it has become a rallying cry of necessity if reform is to be done right.
Neither is entirely the case. First, I agree with other progressive advocates urging you to call your members of Congress about healthcare reform. But rather than emphasizing the public plan, if you're concerned about healthcare and poverty... ask them how they plan to defend and strengthen Medicaid.
Boycotting Whole Foods
Published August 18, 2009 @ 04:28AM PT
If you're like me, you've been watching steam gather behind the boycott of Whole Foods (WFM) over CEO John Mackey's anti-healthcare reform op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times has a handy round-up of the various rationales behind the boycott - I'm partial to Matt Yglesias's point that it challenges the outsized "social and political power" of CEOs in this country. I'm also delighted to see Mackey's customers - typically affluent, politically liberal - push back on Mackey's political ideology. WFM, from most accounts, provides generous healthcare and is a comparatively good retail/service job - so this isn't a boycott about workers' rights in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a pointed rebuke of the idea that we lack the right to healthcare.
Saving with SaveNYC
Published August 17, 2009 @ 05:00AM PT
SaveNYC is an asset-building program run by the City of NY that encourages low-wage tax payers to set aside a portion of their Earned Income Tax Credit refund and receive matching savings in return. Initial results have been promising; 61% of participants saved $500 - the qualifying amount to receive the matching funds. More than three-quarters of the accounts remained open after one year.
Asset building initiatives are anti-poverty programs that help low-income people save more to use towards purchases in homes, small businesses, or education - the big ticket items that may help households build equity or earn more income to eventually exit poverty. What policymakers like about SaveNYC is its demonstration that local governments can play a leadership role in financial empowerment anti-poverty initiatives.
Highest Income Inequality Ever
Published August 16, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
We've surpassed even the vaunted inequality of the 1920s - the "Gilded Age" years that preceded the Great Depression. In 2007, the top 10% of American workers took home just under 50% of all wages. Think about that: if 10 workers were to split $100, one guy (no doubt) would get $49.70, and the remaining 9 would split $51.30. What do you think that one man does for a living compared to the other nine? What jobs, to your mind, possibly deserve that kind of distorted payout?
The paper, written by a Berkeley professor, shows how from 1993 through 2007, the top 1% of earners captured "half of the overall economic growth." Think about how hard you've been working at your job for the past two decades - now you know where your hard-earned profits have gone! And the trend continues - the just released Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows American workers are working longer hours for less pay. Make sure you click through the link to see that thanks to all this productivity, corporate profits are up.
And the cycle continues.
Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly thinks if Democrats or progressives try to rectify this inequality they will be charged with fomenting "class warfare." David Sirota sees the wrangling over Social Security and concludes we're all ready there. We've asked a few times here: is it time to protest yet?
